Family wins Christmas with 500K lights

MUST WATCH

Story highlights

Richards set the record in 2011, lost it to a New York family in 2012, and reclaimed it Sunday.

"It's like walking through a tunnel of lights with synchronized music."

For David Richards, the holiday season is about joy, good cheer and smashing a Guinness World Record.

The lawyer and his family strung more than a half a million bulbs around their house in the Australian capital city of Canberra to reclaim the title for lights on a residential property. In case you're wondering, that's 31 miles of lights.

Richards has been the champ before. He set the world record in 2011 with 331,038 lights, but decided not to do it again because the display took months of effort.

In 2012, the Gay family in Lagrangeville, New York, snatched away the title with a display of 346,283 lights.

Richard rose to the challenge. He not only wanted to take back the record, he wanted to "smash it" so it would stand for a long time.

This time, the number was 502,165 bulbs.

Guinness didn't count each and every bulb. The record was authenticated with sales receipts and by counting LED bulbs spaced among the half million lights, Richards said.

The family takes donations from thousands of people who jam the neighborhood to view the lights. Two years ago, they raised $78,000 for SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and Kids ACT.